On Wednesday night at State Farm Center in Illinois, the No.2 UCLA Bruins women’s basketball team (20-1, 10-1 Big Ten) defeated the Illinois Fighting Illini (15-6, 5-5 Big Ten) to bring their overall record to 20-1, and improve to a 10-0 record in the Big Ten conference, continuing their utter dominance. The Bruins were faced with a challenging matchup and certainly had to fight to win against Illinois, but they still managed to take home the win.
The first quarter started off with Illinois getting on the board first with a jumper by Illinois freshman forward Cearah Parchment, but the Bruins then responded back after being down 2-5 by scoring 12 of the game’s total points, putting them ahead of Illinois 14-5. This offensive explosion was the result of the combined effort of field goals from senior center Lauren Betts, and graduate guard Gianna Kneepkens, as well as layups by senior guard Gabriela Jaquez and freshman forward Sienna Betts.
The first quarter ended with a score of 23-16. The Bruins defense shone bright, holding off Illinois to where their field goal percentage was only 29%, as opposed to their season-average 46%.
The Bruins managed to keep up this offensive momentum in the second quarter, where the combined efforts of Jaquez and graduate forward Angela Dugalić led them to go five-for-five in free throw shots, and the rest of the team went 8 and 14 in field goals. After missing all of their three-point shots in the first quarter, Kneepkens scored the Bruins’ first three-pointer of the game, being assisted by senior guard Kiki Rice. The quarter ended and the game went into halftime with a score of 45-31.
In the third quarter, UCLA’s defense and offense began to crumble, as Illinois started off the third quarter by a layup and a jumper by Illinois’ Parchment and freshman guard Destiny Jackson, respectively, to cut the Bruins’ lead to 10.
Where Illinois dealt the most damage against the Bruins in the third quarter was between 07:22 and 03:31, where the Bruins did not score a single point in that timespan. In that timespan, Illinois was able to put themselves within five points of UCLA, with a three-point shot and jumper by Parchment, as well as another jumper by Jackson. In the third quarter, the Bruins offense was outscored by Illinois 18-11, with UCLA only leading by seven to end the quarter thanks to a layup by Lauren Betts.
In the fourth quarter, the Bruins offense were able to get back their offensive groove and scored five points near the beginning of the quarter. Most impressive was a play when Illinois’ Jackson attempted to pass the ball, but it was blocked by Jaquez and then rebounded by Rice, which then led to a layup by Dugalić. The Bruins were able to extend and maintain their lead and were able to keep up with the various offensive efforts coming from Illinois, ending the game with a score of 80-67.
The statistical breakdown for this game was extremely interesting. On Illinois’ end, Parchment’s performance seemed too good to be wasted—she scored 26 points with seven rebounds, which was more than any Bruin starter during the game. However, it seems as if her teammates were unable to keep up, as only three of Parchment’s teammates scored in the double-digits: sophomore forward Berry Wallace, Jackson and junior guard Maddie Webber.
The Bruins, on the other hand, had six players score in the double-digits, consisting of Jaquez, Rice, Kneepkens, Dugalić, Lauren Betts and Sienna Betts. The Bruins managed to be more consistent than the Fighting Illini, and is what helped them to victory.
Despite Illinois’ loss against UCLA, the Bruins’ head coach, Cori Close, gave kudos to their team for how well they played and how much of a challenge they posed to UCLA: “I really credit their coaching staff for how they got their team ready, and they gave us all we can handle. I thought it was really good for us.”
That being said, Close realized just how close the game got: “I don’t think we were as poised as we needed to be…we didn’t execute our scouting report in the first half the way that we needed to…we were playing in a style where we didn’t want to play.”
Close believes that this is a learning opportunity for the Bruins, and will only help them going forward as they become aware of things they could have done better in each and every game.
After tonight’s victory against Illinois, the Bruins will now turn their attention to their 1 p.m. PST matchup against the University of Iowa at Pauley Pavilion on Sunday, Feb. 1.
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Featured Image Photographed by Regan Rhodes/BruinLife
